It is an edited book with chapters written by multi-disciplinary specialists in their specific subject areas. It covers development of IPM components and packaging them for individual vegetable crops specifically targeted to tropical countries. Scientific background for IPM components or tactics will be included. There will be case studies of IPM packages developed and implemented in different countries. The concept of IPM has been in existence for the past six decades; however, a practical holistic program has not been developed and implemented for vegetable crops, in the developing countries.
Currently the IPM adoption rate in the tropics is minimal and there is a need for implementation of IPM technologies that are environmentally safe, economical, and socially acceptable. We believe that adoption and implementation of IPM provided in this book will lead to significant reduction in crop losses and mitigate adverse impacts of pesticide use in the tropics. This book is an outcome 20 years of research, development and implementation of the IPM CRSP, a project supported by USAID and administered by Virginia Tech in several developing countries along the tropical belt in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.